Measuring Digital Marketing Performance
GA4 + GTM + GSC • UTMs • Key Events
Jarrod Griffin
College of Business Administration - Cal Poly Pomona
2/10/2026
Greetings and Introductions
- Jae Jung, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing, Director of CCIDM
- Jarrod Griffin, Master’s Student - Digital Marketing, Graduate Fellow, CCIDM
Live slides available at https://ccidm.github.io/cba-symposium-quarto
Introduction & Orientation
- The Objective: Moving from marketing theory to Marketing Operations.
- The Career Impact: Why this technical skillset matters for your future role.
- The Goal: Gaining the ability to not just plan campaigns, but measure and optimize them.
Agenda
- Introduction & Orientation (5 min)
- Conceptual Framework (10 Min): The Data Ecosystem (GA4, GTM, GSC)
- Technical Implementation (25 Min): Setting up the environment
- Search Visibility (15 Min): Google Search Console integration
- Campaign Tracking (15 Min): Mastering UTM parameters
- Performance Measurement (10 Min): Defining and tracking Key Events
Learning Outcomes:
After taking this workshop, participants should be able to:
- Explain how Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Tag Manager (GTM), and Google Search Console (GSC) work together to measure and improve digital marketing performance.
- Configure Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for a website using Google Tag Manager (GTM) to ensure reliable baseline tracking.
- Validate and troubleshoot GA4 event tracking using GTM Preview/Debug tools to confirm accurate event collection.
- Configure Google Search Console (GSC) and connect to GA4 to incorporate organic search query and landing-page performance data.
- Build standardized UTM parameters to track marketing campaigns consistently across channels and avoid attribution errors.
- Set up and interpret GA4 Key Events to measure marketing outcomes.
Workshop Prep
- Create Google Account
- Download/Setup RStudio
- Download/Setup Git
- Access Starter Quarto Portfolio Website Repo https://github.com/CCIDM/portfolio-website-template
Note
Optional to Follow Along; Required to Deploy
Trinity of Google Data Collection
1. Google Tag Manager (GTM): “The Brain”
2. Google Analytics 4 (GA4): “The Database”
3. Google Search Console (GSC): “The Visibility Health Check”
How they Connect
How they connect
Rule #1: We do not put GA4 code directly on the site Rule #2: We put GTM code on the site Rule #3: GTM sends the data to GA4
- Install GTM on the site (not GA4 code directly)
- GTM sends events to GA4
- Link GSC to GA4 for organic query + landing-page reporting
Quick access links
- GA4: https://analytics.google.com/
- GTM: https://tagmanager.google.com/
- GSC: https://search.google.com/search-console/
Today’s rule: use one Google account across tools.
Visual placeholder: QR codes / short links
Technical Implementation (overview)
- Step 1: The Setup . . .
- Step 2: The Quarto Integration . . .
- Step 3: The GA4 Configuration Tag . . .
- Step 4: Publishing . . .
- Step 5: Validation
Step 1 — The Setup
- Create GA4 property
- Create a GTM account + container
- Confirm you have:
- Admin access
- GA4 Measurement ID (G-XXXXXXXX)
Visual placeholder: GA4 property + Data Stream screen
Step 2 — Quarto Integration
Action: copy the GTM snippets
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